Contrails: Dec '25 into Jan '26

Wanted to start the new year with a new blog title! Not that anything needed to be changed, but 2026 has a high potential to be a challenging year for me, so I wanted to start on the right foot! 🥹 I decided to go with "Contrails" because that is what these weekly reflections feel like -- the memories dissipate quickly unless I put in effort to take pictures along the way, and stop every Monday to relive them in my mind. The faster I move forward, the more often my memory gets rewritten with new experiences, and I'm always left wondering where all my time went.

So like contrails, I want to look back every week to appreciate the shapes they drew, and to bid them farewell as I look forward. どんな形になったを知り、消えゆく前に感謝を。🙂‍↕️💖

✨ Gaming -- PANIC GAMING in Lost Judgment, farming in FFXIV, raging in Mon Hun Wilds, and just enough Sonic Racing to wash it all down

❤️❤️❤️

Seeing as that FFXIV Raid tier was in a week's time, I felt the need to attempt to finish Lost Judgment before I forgot how to play the game. Little did I expect that I had already lost touch with the combat system. 🙃 Fortunately the combat system is forgiving, so it wasn't difficult to get back on track.

True. 🤔 That's part of a person's charm! 🤔💜

I bought an expensive outfit for fun and had a good laugh. 🤣🤣🤣

I tried to focus on just the main story and was surprised that the fights weren't that challenging, so I didn't feel like I would benefit from doing side content for experience points. 🤔 Unfortunately I'm still not done with the game though, so I'll try to find time to finish it between raid days! 🥺

Random cameo by my favorite Chinese man in the Ryu Ga Gotoku universe. 🥹💜

Speaking of FFXIV Raids, amidst all the time spent farming for Tomes in preparation for the savage raid, I got to enjoy New Year vibes with the Heavensturn event!

I usually end up drawing twice because my first fortune wouldn't be great, so what you're seeing is the second draw. But I forgot to screenshot the Omikuji text!!! 🙃

I also spent considerable amount of time in The Great Gubal Library dungeon trying to get a piece of gear to complete my Sharlayan glamour set:

There are more that I have yet to ID and obtain, but I'm happy with what I have. 🥹💖 The piece I was farming for was the Striking mud colored top (middle row, right most). It's ugly, but I just wanted to complete the set! 🥹 Might change the color of the bottom row, middle outfit -- I just like that shade of red so I left it as that, but it looks good in black, huh. 🤔

My favorite is still my usual red outfit! ❤️ Apparently I haven't changed my look for 4 years now. 🤣🤣🤣 I'm glad I'll be seeing myself in it this savage raid tier! 💖 In fact, now that glamours are not class-locked, I could wear my favorite outfit all the time!!!But it's fun to wear different colors of the same piece of clothing! 🥹 So I'll just stick to the glamours I've been using. 🤣

I played a little Mon Hun Wilds and Sonic Racing here and there! I learned that I hate the Gogmazios fight and won't be doing it anymore since I don't even need anything from it. Why subject myself to so much suffering?! 🙃

And finally, cats!

✨ Projects -- Recorded vocals for a collab., and practiced for the first solo cover of 2026!

I'm back to work?! It was difficult singing both songs, but I think I'll be satisfied with the outcome as long as I put my heart into it! 🥺 I'm trying to have both covers released by January, but we'll see!

I need to catch up on a different collab. as well, so here's hoping that January will be a productive month!!! 💖

✨ IRL things -- Celebrated the turn of the New Year, and started doing home work outs

Most of my week was spent cleaning the house in preparation of the New Year and to enjoy the first weekend. On New Year's Eve I met my extended family for dinner, then went home to catch the MOGRA countdown stream!

Although if I were to be completely honest, I didn't really enjoy several DJs for about 1.5 hours. But I kept watching for good vibes.

A friend came to visit on New Year's Day (Thursday), so I did most of the cleaning on Friday! My hands are pretty bashed, but I'm satisfied with how much I got done! ✨

Before New Year's, my partner shared that he wanted to start exercising in 2026, so I agreed to do so as well to keep him company! But I ended up gaining 1kg?! 💔💔💔

Oh well. Hopefully there would be some positive results if I stick to the plan... 🙃

~💜~

Hopes for this week

♪ Practice and record vocals for the next solo cover!

♪ Edit vocals for a collab. to send off for mixing

☆ Week 1 of 7.4 Savage Raids: Hope we make good progress! I need to practice my PLD rotation!!!

☆ Finish Lost Judgment? Maybe? Hopefully?

Thank you for reading! 🌙🐰